The clock is now ticking for Burlington police officers who may be out of shape. All sworn officers in the agency will have about a year and a half to two years to work on their fitness before the police department begins annual testing in 2015.

“We’re not setting out to get anybody fired or take anybody’s career,” said Assistant Chief Chris Verdeck. “The main purpose is to get people more fit so they can have longer, healthier careers and longer, healthier retirements.”

Verdeck said Chief Jeffrey Smythe came across a statistic that a “staggering amount” of retired police officers die within seven years of retirement, and the department began solidifying a plan that had been discussed for several years.

Members of the department will be required to pass the Police Officer Physical Assessment Test, which they are required to pass in basic law enforcement training in North Carolina. Verdeck said the test is designed to simulate the types of situations officers encounter on a given day on duty.

The test, he said, begins with the officer sitting in the driver’s seat of a car. The officer is told a set of cross streets — such as Main and Maple, for example — and then time starts. After getting out of the car and running 200 yards, the officer removes an approximately 170-pound dummy from a vehicle and drags it 50 feet. The officer then goes up and down flights of stairs, has to force open a weighted door, performs sets of 20 push-ups and sit-ups, runs more and, at the end, must recite the names of the streets mentioned at the beginning of the test.

Verdeck said the department’s training officer has already begun working with officers to assess their performance on the test and determine how much some of them may need to improve. But overall, he thinks most Burlington officers would be able to make it through the assessment.

“I think if everybody were to take it today, the vast majority would at least come close to passing it,” he said.

Smythe said he and City Manager Harold Owen agreed that improving officers’ fitness in the department would be one of his goals during his first year as chief. He said that though it’s hard to look at a department and objectively determine the officers’ level of health and fitness, the number of injuries and physical appearance of the officers could be indicators. Smythe described the department as having a “moderate frequency” of injuries in its employees on and off duty.

According to research, a number of felons who have assaulted police officers said they did so because the particular officer didn’t appear to be in shape and the criminal thought he could take the officer, Smythe said.

“We want to know and have confidence that all of our officers are looking good in uniform and imposing enough that they’re not going to be assaulted in the line of duty,” he said. “The vast majority are wonderful, but there are a few who don’t look as professional or strong or provide the physical deterrence we’d like them to have.”

Smythe said he expected that all 125 sworn officers could be able to pass the test, and that programs would be put in place to work with officers who need additional training over the next year and a half.

“It sounds a whole lot harder than it is, but it’s things these guys are doing every day anyway, it’s just not in a test format,” Verdeck said. “These guys and girls are out there and are already doing it.”